Eatonton and Putnam County law enforcement officers are actively handling widespread panic that resulted from an alleged threat made by a middle school student.
Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told The Eatonton Messenger that schools are reportedly still in session because the threat has been dealt with, and the accused student is no longer in school.
“The kid that allegedly made this threat has been removed from the school, and we’ve got officers at every public school and Gatewood,” Cardwell said. “I’m walking down the hall at the Putnam Middle School right now as I’m talking to you, and the students are stopping me in the hallway to tell or ask me things.”
According to Sills, panic results from a woman’s post on Facebook.
“She said her child had said some child told her child that some other child was going to bring a gun to the middle school,” he explained. “And so we (Sills, Cardwell, their investigators) immediately stopped everything we were doing and tracked down this child who made the threat, just like we always do.”
Sills said the child supposedly made the statement on the school bus on the way home from school Thursday.
Cardwell and PCSO Lt. Harry Luke met face-to-face with the parents and the child several hours later. The law enforcement officers made sure that the child had no access to a firearm, Sills said. The parents brought the student to the principal’s office at the middle school the next morning before school and met with the principal, Chief Cardwell, and Lt. Luke. The student repeatedly denied making any threats.
No charges had been filed as of 11 a.m. Friday, but Cardwell and Sills said they are actively investigating the alleged threat.
“The crime of terroristic threat in Georgia requires corroboration, not just one person saying they heard something,” Sills explained. “So that’s what we’re doing – looking at videos, looking for evidence – but the (kid) is not at the school. We immediately jump on every one of these things and investigate them as soon as we discover them. And I don’t know what more we can do.”
Cardwell said some of the calls he’s receiving reveal yesterday and today’s situation as being confused with another incident that happened 10 days ago. He said a 14-year-old boy made threats toward another student.
“But the threat was not made toward the school, not made at school, and it was directed at one particular student,” he said. “That 14-year-old was charged with terroristic threats and is in custody at YDC.”
Regarding that and other situations, the police chief had one piece of advice.
“I just urge parents to closely monitor their kids’ social media activity,” he said.